Local officials inspected a farm Monday in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, after it was announced Sunday that the farm had kept a cow that had mad cow disease, the 10th such case in Japan.
The prefectural officials visited the farm to examine the feed given to the animal, which was slaughtered Friday, and to check the health of some 60 other cows kept there.
The prefecture plans to question a former farmer in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, who had kept the cow until it was sold to the Hiratsuka farm last June, prefectural officials said.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Sunday that the cow, a Holstein one month shy of 12 years old, had the brain-wasting disease, which is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The disease was detected as a result of the tests conducted on all cattle slaughtered in Japan. A preliminary test showed the cow might have had mad cow disease, and a second, more precise test, confirmed the case.
Government officials said the meat and organs from the cow, which were being kept at the slaughterhouse pending the results of the second test, will be incinerated.
Japan found its first case of mad cow disease in September 2001. The ninth case was found in Hiroshima Prefecture in November.
Six of the nine previous cows and the latest one were all born between Feb. 10 and April 4, 1996. The Hiratsuka cow was born March 17, 1996.
After the preliminary test showed the suspected presence of mad cow disease, samples were sent to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo. The institute conducted a test using the Western Blot method to examine the buildup of abnormal prions, and confirmed the cow was infected with the disease.
